Dressed in its handsome feathered suit, my screech owl becomes almost invisible sitting in the opening of its nest hole. Usually hidden away in the day, every night just as dusk approaches it sits in the opening before venturing out to hunt under the cover of dark.

My Certified Wildlife Habitat in rural Maryland provides food, cover, water and a place to raise young for this beautiful screech owl and many other fascinating wildlife. And food often abounds. Just as soon as the ice melts in spring my small backyard pond will swarm with a frenzy of wood frogs loudly calling for a mate. Thinking of nothing else, these quacking hormone-driven wood frogs are oblivious to the dangers of so vociferously calling as they float on the water surface. It is not uncommon for my screech owl to make a meal of a wood frog that is focused on nothing other than finding a mate.

As much as I love having screech owls in my Certified Wildlife Habitat, not all my local wildlife are as happy about it as I am. Even though the mating frogs ignore the screech owl at their own peril, some of the local chickadees and tufted titmice put up quite a fuss. They flit about the nest box while loudly screaming in alarm. The screech owl doesn’t seem to care much about the racket, and continues to slumber away at the bottom of its nest cavity.

I completed my habitat in 1997 and it was certified as No. 19,681 of the now more than 150,000 certified habitats. I’m sure many of the others who created a home for wildlife in their backyards also thrill at hearing the eerie sound of a screech owl calling in the night.

Eagle taking flight. This photo, by Robert Miller, is from the National Wildlife Photo Contest.

The most iconic of Endangered Species Act success stories is the recovery of the bald eagle, our national symbol. Magnificent in stature and beautiful to behold, the bald eagle very nearly disappeared from the lower-48 states, in contrast to an historic population of as many as 100,000.

The bald eagle has been protected for some 95 years, but continued killing was the primary cause for passage of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act in 1940. While that helped, an even bigger challenge in the mid-20th century was the widespread use of DDT, which led to a dangerously low population of 500 or fewer bald eagle pairs in the lower-48 states by 1963. Under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, a precursor to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the bald eagle was officially declared an endangered species in 1967.

Road to Recovery

Enactment of the Endangered Species Act and the banning of DDT were both critical actions that lead to the recovery of the bald eagle. With the banning in 1972 of DDT — the cause of egg-shell thinning and breakage — the stage was set for nationwide efforts to recover the bald eagle via the Endangered Species Act.

The National Wildlife Federation toured the country with a captive bald eagle named Migisiwa to increase public awareness and support for recovery of bald eagles. We also posted a $1,000 award for anyone providing information leading to conviction for killing a bald eagle.

The National Wildlife Federation undertook efforts in the field to help bald eagles recover in the Chesapeake Bay. We also started the nationwide Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey in 1979 to monitor bald eagle populations, coordinating it until 1992, whereupon it was handed over to the federal government for continuation.

A bald eagle in flight. This photo, by Clinton Ferrara, is from the National Wildlife Photo Contest.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/05/symbol-of-success-americas-bald-eagle-and-the-endangered-species-act/feed/380581Wacky Weather and Wildlife—Staring Climate Change in the Facehttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/09/wacky-weather-and-wildlife-staring-climate-change-in-the-face/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/09/wacky-weather-and-wildlife-staring-climate-change-in-the-face/#commentsMon, 10 Sep 2012 16:18:24 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=66309In the words of President Obama, “More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future.” Indeed, it is not a joke that driven by this summer’s drought in the U.S. and Eastern Europe, global food prices already sky-rocketed 10% from June to July, including record-high prices for corn and soybeans.

Although wildlife aren’t bothered by high food prices, they are just as much affected as humans—if not more—by the climate change driven heat waves, severe droughts and widespread wildfires of this ruined summer. After all, wildlife don’t buy food at the grocery store. The extreme weather has unleashed a plague of black bear raids across the country. Black bears are crashing bars, stepping up to the counter at candy stores, cleaning out food pantries and helping themselves to farmer’s crops.

But who can blame them? They’re staring climate change in the face. The severe drought has devastated their normal wild food sources: acorns, berries and forbs have shriveled up in the extreme heat and drought. As if potential starvation wasn’t a big enough challenge, bears wandering into stores and walking down Main Street are at much greater peril of death than they are running wild in the woods.

The extreme heat and drought, which has broken the record temperatures set during the infamous Dust Bowl in the 1930s, are harming other wildlife as well.

Elk and deer are facing severe food shortages. In Utah, the number of hunting permits has been increased to reduce game populations before the long winter. The alternative is starvation.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/09/wacky-weather-and-wildlife-staring-climate-change-in-the-face/feed/266309Can It Be Done? Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Changehttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/can-it-be-done-safeguarding-wildlife-from-climate-change/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/can-it-be-done-safeguarding-wildlife-from-climate-change/#commentsWed, 27 Jun 2012 19:32:15 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=62154Regardless of the reckless falsehoods spewed by climate deniers it is well known to scientists and conservationists that climate change is putting wildlife at risk.

Second, is to safeguard wildlife from the climate change that is already happening and will continue to happen as a result of carbon pollution already in the atmosphere. Safeguarding wildlife means taking management actions that will help wildlife adapt to climate change, such as providing vegetative shading on trout streams to help keep the water cool. It turns out, a whole lot can be done to safeguard wildlife from climate change.

The National Wildlife Federation’s affiliate organizations, which set NWF conservation policies, just last month approved a new policy position calling for action to safeguard wildlife from climate change.

A critical action from the policy perspective is supporting the completion and implementation of the federal government’s National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy. Just as important is urging states to complete state adaptation plans and integrate consideration of climate change into both new and existing and natural resource management plans. Federal and state conservation plans that account for climate change will help protect people, wildlife and property from climate impacts.

Wildlife need our help if they are to thrive in the rapidly changing climate mankind is forcing on them. It’s time to reduce our carbon pollution, and to take action to safeguard wildlife from climate change. Don’t you think so?

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/can-it-be-done-safeguarding-wildlife-from-climate-change/feed/162154Lonesome George – Extinction is Foreverhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/lonesome-george-extinction-is-forever/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/lonesome-george-extinction-is-forever/#commentsMon, 25 Jun 2012 21:50:33 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=61777The Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni) is gone, forever. Lonesome George, a sad sentinel for his subspecies and a symbol of the destruction of species caused by humankind, died today of unknown causes. George was the last survivor of his subspecies of the famed Galapagos tortoise, which contributed to Charles Darwin developing his theory of evolution when he noticed the differences in tortoises and other wildlife, residing on the various Galapagos Islands.

Unlike the highly visible death of Lonesome George and his subspecies, most species are becoming extinct without us even knowing when the last bell tolls. Human factors—habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution and others—have been wiping out species for decades, undoubtedly some we never even discovered before they were gone forever.

Yet, closed-minded people ignorant of science continue to deny Darwin’s theory of evolution and others still dispute man-driven climate change despite mountains of evidence. Both are so well-proven that informed non-believers could only be willfully ignoring or distorting the truth for their own self-serving purposes…such as getting re-elected to office or making money by preserving the status quo. Denying the reality of climate change (and evolution, for that matter) doesn’t change the truth.

It’s time we leave behind the dogmatic deniers of climate change. We’ll move forward without them, and we can. It won’t be easy to resolve the climate change crisis caused by our own pollution, but I think mankind has the ability to make changes. After all, we’ve made changes before. And we should do it again, not only for all the Lonesome Georges in the world, but in fact for ourselves.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/lonesome-george-extinction-is-forever/feed/8617775 Ways Wildfires Threaten Western Wildlifehttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/5-ways-wildfires-threaten-western-wildlife/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/06/5-ways-wildfires-threaten-western-wildlife/#commentsTue, 19 Jun 2012 19:16:09 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=61167The wildfires raging throughout the West are a stark reminder of the new world we are living in. One in which climate change due to carbon pollution takes something that once was a part of a healthy, natural cycle—like a wildfire—and turns it into monster that leaves in its wake long-term damage to people, the landscape and wildlife.

In places like New Mexico and Colorado, which are seeing some of their worst wildfires in history, the full extent of the damage is yet to be seen. For the elk, black bears, mountain lions, mule deer, pronghorn, red-tailed hawks, trout and countless other species that call the Gila, Lincoln, Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests home, the increased intensity, frequency and size of these fires is not something they are always prepared to deal with. While many animals will be able to survive these fires, some will not.

Here are 5 ways catastrophic fires threaten Western wildlife:

Photo credit: Flickr user kdee64

No escape. For some animals, like newly hatched, downy nestlings that are unable to fly, there is simply no way to flee the fire. For others, escape routes can force wildlife across roads, putting them at greater risk of being hit by vehicles. In other instances, the pace at which a fire spreads can trap even the fastest moving animals, including pronghorn, elk and deer.

Habitat destruction. Massive wildlife fires in the West are destroying forests, including interspersed sagebrush habitats which, in the decades ahead, are expected to become a fraction of their current size due to warmer temperatures and more frequent major wildfires. A recent study of global warming impacts in the Great Basin projects up to an 80-percent reduction in the area of sagebrush ecosystems across the region. Any significant decline in the West’s remaining native sagebrush habitats will have devastating consequences for sage grouse, mule deer, pronghorn and other species that depend on them. Fires raging across the West are destroying sagebrush habitats, some of which can take 120 or more years to recover.

Hotter, bigger and more frequent fires. The increasing number, size and intensity of wildfires is dramatically altering habitat for fish and wildlife. For example: very hot, long-burning fires damage soils by burning organic matter, breaking down soil structure, and reducing water retention. These fires also destroy the natural vegetation that shades cold-water streams, which helps keep them cool. None of these changes are beneficial to favored angling species such as trout, which require a steady supply of clean, cold and silt-free water.

More stress. Catastrophic fires make it harder for wildlife to recover afterwards. They have to move longer distances to re-colonize burned areas. The burned soils have lost important nutrients, and even more nutrients wash away in the erosion after the fires. As a result, there can be lower productivity of plants and wildlife. The more frequent burnings only exacerbate these stresses on wildlife.

Smoke coming from the fire burning in the foothills west of Fort Collins in northern Colorado. The trees in the foreground have been damaged by pine bark beetles. Photo credit: Judith Kohler

Changing ecology. Various species of pine bark beetles cause the death of coniferous trees when the beetles burrowing under the bark carry fungus, which then grows and blocks the tree’s sap flow. Milder winters are allowing more beetle larvae to survive and longer/warmer summers are allowing more generations per year, leading to exploding beetle populations. Entire forests are being destroyed—up to a million trees a year during a single outbreak—and affecting the many species that live there. And left behind is a full tinder box just waiting to explode with the next lightening strike. It can take many decades, even hundreds of years, for mature forests to return.

The hand-written letter was from an 8-year-old 2nd grader. I’ll call her Kay. She told me that she saw my YouTube video about the problems global warming is causing for polar bears. She was “angry” and “sad” and said that she knew to turn off lights to conserve energy, but it wasn’t enough…what more could she do, with her “big voice,” she asked. She signed off as “Your polar bear friend.”

Her written words were passionate, and the drawing she enclosed obviously heart-felt. Carefully sketched were two sad polar bears sitting on very small ice floes; both bears were crying. In the corner she drew a diagram of the sun shining on the earth to depict global warming, with a label pointing to the Arctic where polar bears live.

Kay’s letter touched my heart. And just like she was feeling, it made me both sad and angry.

Sad, because the reality is, beyond even a shadow of scientific doubt, global warming driven by the excessive burning of fossil fuels will forever change the planet and the life it supports, unless we take real and significant action immediately. Angry because politicians continue to play reckless and dangerous political games with Kay’s future and, in fact, the future well-being of every child.

Reckless Indifference or Responsible Action?

Providing our children a future with polar bears, a healthy environment and a safe place to live should not be a mere political game. It’s a deep responsibility, incumbent upon all of us to take meaningful and effective action, regardless of political persuasion.

Tragically, organizations like the Heartland Institute continue to feed the fires of climate change controversy despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, with reckless indifference to the future well-being of Kay and millions of children just like her. Congress continues to duck the global warming issue, failing to take any significant action to curb global warming pollution. Even worse, lawmakers continue to try and stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that under the Clean Air Act the EPA clearly has the authority to do so.

Unable to see beyond the next election, politicians are gambling away Kay’s future, all the while fixing the odds in their own favor for short-term political winnings.

I wrote back to Kay, encouraging her to keep learning about global warming and to tell her friends about the trouble polar bears are in and why. I told her that some of them, like her, would also want to take action to help solve the problem. I believe we actually can save polar bears and lots of other wildlife that are affected by global warming. Kay’s “big voice” combined with others is necessary to win a brighter future for children like her.

Not a week later, Kay wrote back to me. She is working on a day where her schoolmates will ride their bikes and walk to school in lieu of motorized transportation…she calls it the “Polar bear shuffle.” Kay is taking action. Meanwhile, our elected officials continue to stall, duck and even deny the issue.

If an eight-year-old girl can step forward to invest in her own future, is it too much to ask our politicians to truly invest in every child’s future by taking action to curb global warming now?

Let’s not gamble Kay’s future away, and instead protect wildlife for her and future generations.

One of the things I most enjoy when I’m hunting is watching all the other wildlife I see. I thought you might enjoy hearing about the wildlife I saw during the just-closed two-week deer season near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Except for deer, which seem to know where I am and give me a wide berth, the other wildlife ignore me altogether. Well, there was a marked exception one day to that generalization: a tufted titmouse found me high in a tree in my deer stand, and proceeded to spend about five minutes loudly scolding me from branches only several feet away. S/he was quite upset, but eventually grew tired of squabbling and left, leaving me to more peacefully watch other wildlife.

Here are a few highlights:

Twice I watched a sharp-shinned hawk that was hunting. Both times the sleek well-groomed bird was flying silently through the forest, no more than two or three feet off the ground, seemingly effortlessly maneuvering through the brush with a flick of its long tail here or a quick wing stroke there. It would perch on a branch for about 20 seconds, then again fly about 100 feet and perch again, all the time looking for its favorite prey: the songbirds which frequent the brush. Because I was in a tree, I was looking down on the sharp-shinned hawk when it went directly underneath me.

In marked contrast to the the sharp-shinned hawk’s sleek appearance and graceful flight, one day a large wild turkey suddenly thrashed its way out of the brush 100 feet away. When I reached for my binoculars it immediately changed course away from me and disappeared back into the brush. Smart birds, those wild turkeys. Other times I’ve heard wild turkeys vocalizing, watched them feeding on the forest floor, and once delighted in the site of them leaving their night time roost trees at dawn with a long stiff-winged glide to the ground. Gobble, gobble! Cluck, cluck!

Pileated and other woodpeckers are quite common, not to mention loud. They all ignore me, sometimes getting quite close.

But, my favorite every fall, is to hear and see the migrating tundra swans flying overhead. I hadn’t seen any this entire fall season until about 8:00 AM on the last day of the deer season, when I heard tundra swans calling overhead, and I knew right away they weren’t geese! About 50 birds flew in magnificent large ‘V’ formation heading southeast towards Chesapeake Bay about 60 miles away, where they winter. These birds were from somewhere along the very northern coast of North America where they breed on the tundra, and could have even been from Alaska, some 6,400 miles away! Click here for a range map (scroll down), or click here to hear their calls (scroll down to the first recording for tundra swans)….that is the beautiful sound I heard overhead.